Celebrate a Safe Makar Sankranti for Animals
Makar Sankranti is about celebrating festival happily with family - it is not about flying kites and endangering the lives of thousands of birds and even human beings.
Tweet-- Every January in Mumbai, the financial capital and elsewhere in India, we sacrifice thousands of its birds in the name of entertainment for the excitement of kite-flying. The festival, which is popularly known as "Makar Sankranti", is mainly related to Til ka laddo, but for entertainment, we let innocent birds die a miserable death when glass-coated manja cuts and injures them. Many times, the birds suffer many days with glass pieces embedded in their bodies, or they become entangled in manja on live wires. Injuries to birds are mainly caused by glass-coated threads that cut and entangle to cause fractures, wing cuts and nerve injuries, and Makar Sankranti is becoming worse because people are continuing use deadly manja, totally ignoring the harm and pain they cause to birds. Not only is glass-coated manja hazardous for birds, it is also responsible for numerous human injuries and deaths every year, including the deaths of passers-by travelling on open conveyances such as bicycles, motorcycles or scooters. In one incident in Mumbai, a stray glass-coated manja nearly cut a young person's throat. The manja sliced the larynx (the uppermost part of the voice box) and the surrounding muscles, which are 3 to 4 centimetres in thickness, according to a news report. Ten people were killed in Ahmedabad on Makar Sankranthi: three were decapitated by manja, and seven were killed after falling off terraces or being run over by vehicles while chasing stray kites. People can help innocent birds by doing the following:
1) Do not fly kites before 9 am and after 5 pm, as this is the period during which birds go out in search of food or are returning back to their nests.
2) Do not fly kites with glass-coated manja. The most humane and eco-friendly solution is not to fly kites at all, and if people want to fly kites, then they can simply use the thread without any glass coating.
3) Always dispose of the leftover pieces of manja in a more careful manner so that the birds are not able to entangle themselves in the manja.
4) Never ignore an injured bird, and call local animal welfare organisations or activists for help. Until help arrives, the bird should be placed in a cardboard box in a warm place, perforated at some places for ventilation. The bird could be immobilised by wrapping a cloth bandage gently around his or her body. A few drops of water could be put into his or her mouth, and in cases of severe bleeding, glucose could be added to the water. Make sure you keep the bird dry and warm.
5) Keep ready some empty cardboard boxes with holes in the top to secure injured birds.
6) Be very careful not to scare or further increase the injury of the bird while catching him or her, as this may create panic, and any hard handling may even result in the death of the bird (birds are not used to any human handling and are very sensitive).
7) Please think before flying a kite that your fun could severely injure or kill an animal.
Makar Sankranti is about celebrating festival happily with family - it is not about flying kites and endangering the lives of thousands of birds and even human beings.